Russ Meneve was born in Hawthorne, New Jersey. He first began doing comedy at 17 while a student at Hawthorne High School. In 1993, he did his first professional stand up comedy routine.[2] After school, he received a degree in accounting and worked as an accountant for Price Waterhouse.[1] After quitting the job, he worked for Toys "R" Us and as a door-to-door salesman for telephone services. At the same time, he applied for the job of a page at NBC. Meneve became successful as a salesman and joined his former boss at a new company with a much higher salary but when NBC offered him a part-time job with a much lower salary, he quit as a salesman and worked for NBC as a page.[1]
In 2004, he collaborated with Ted Alexandro and Tom Shillue to found the "New York Comedians Coalition" with over 300 other New York based comedians as their members in order to represent the comedians of the city and to negotiate better payment for comedians performing in the clubs.[3] After several meetings with the club owners, the Coalition managed to negotiate a raise for all comics in the city.[2]